An enterprise environment includes multiple managed endpoints, such as user workstations, switches, and routers. This enterprise environment is managed by management computers operated by information technology (IT) staff. The IT staff perform functions such as installing software on the managed endpoints and otherwise modifying their configurations. The IT staff also collect information about the managed endpoints, such as the software programs installed on the endpoint.
The IT staff often need to know information about the software programs on the endpoints. Software installation and operation techniques can vary based on the configurations of the managed endpoints and the needs of the users in the environment. Some useful techniques may not be documented in the instructions provided with the software programs, but rather are discovered by the IT staff, for example through trial and error. It is also useful to know various undocumented properties of software programs, such as whether a program is spyware or whether a program is known to have defects.
The IT staffs in separate enterprises often discover information about the same software programs through independent efforts. Various web-based message boards and similar systems exist for IT staffs to communicate with each other to share this information and reduce duplicated efforts. However, these systems are often manually intensive and are not well integrated with the management computers used by the IT staffs to perform enterprise management functions. What is needed are systems and methods for automating the sharing of enterprise configuration information between IT staffs and integrating the information sharing with management computers used by the IT staffs.